Chapter Twenty-seven: Dreams Revisited

Summary: Twenty-seventh chapter. Twenty-two to go. That about sums it up.

Things at the Black household soon seemed to settle into a normal routine which was, in fact, not far removed from the way things had been at Arabella's small cottage. Breakfast was always spent together, after which Harry usually spent the majority of his time either poking about in the garden in the back of the house, or exploring the inside. And with Sirius' home, as large as it was, 'exploring' was no simple task. Every room offered up a wealth of interesting things to either look around in or read through. But what Harry found the most interesting were the pictures. Large oil paintings to small snap-shots. The estate was a warehouse of pictures. And even though the pictures were mostly of people he didn't recognize, Harry assumed most were somehow likely related to Sirius. Harry was sure one of them had to be of Sirius' brother, Orion, whom Lupin had off-handedly mentioned had been living in the house when Harry had asked if anyone had been, since it appeared quite well taken care of. But when he had asked if Orion was in any of the pictures that were sitting over the mantle piece in the main room, Sirius had indirectly gestured to one of the pictures that contained several people, indicating his brother was in the picture. But he had done so grudgingly, Harry noted, and hadn't elaborated on which person was his brother, so Harry let the matter go until Lupin's next visit.

Always an excellent source of information, Lupin was happy to point out several pictures about the house of Orion Black. Harry was actually astonished at the resemblance. One that ran so close between the brothers that Harry had mistaken several pictures of Orion that he had thought were of Sirius.

"Does Sirius have any other family?" Harry had asked as he looked over the pictures. There were plenty of people in the shots, but it was hard to discern if they were family of friends.

"It's actually hard to say." Lupin admitted. "Sirius doesn't talk about his family much. Even when he was in school he was pretty vague about them. The rest of us only knew about Orion since he was at school when we were, a few years ahead of us. But we never saw Sirius even associate much with him. We had the impression they didn't get alone even then."

"Don't they get along now?" Harry inquired. He had wondered why Orion wasn't still living at the house, but had dropped the subject when Sirius answered his question with a very short, 'because he's not' answer, then quickly changed the subject.

"I think Orion cares about his brother more than he's willing to admit and more than Sirius is willing to accept, Harry." Lupin answered after a moments consideration. "After all, it was in part Orion's work that put the spells and charms on the house. He was an excellent student at protection charms in school. I believe Dumbledore had even enlisted him to do some work on some old, fading wards on the castle. Orion was every bit as intelligent and clever as Sirius. But he was cut more from the cloth of the likes of Percy Weasley. Liked living by rules. Which was naturally likely to cause some problems when Sirius Black is your brother."

Harry imagined much the same situation as existed between Percy and his younger twin brothers, Fred and George. But even there he was still sure that under all his pompousness and flustering at them most of the time, that Percy loved his brothers. The relationship between Sirius and his brother Orion, Harry wasn't so sure about. But he also figured all the answers he had were all he was likely to get for the time being and eventually he gave up on trying to discover anything more about the mysterious Orion Black.

To further occupy his time, Harry had his school assignments for the summer to work on. A task that proved far easier than in summers past in that he had three willing and eager participants to help him. Sirius and Arabella were always willing to lend a hand, and Lupin was more than accommodating when he visited. Although true to the teacher he had been, his help rarely extended past simply pointing Harry in the right direction of where to find the information he needed.

Harry sat on the sofa one afternoon finishing the last of one of his homework assignment when Arabella came into the room.

"I'm headed into town." She announced. "Does anyone need anything?"

"I need some more parchment for school." Harry stated.

"All right." She replied. "Sirius?"
Sirius looked up from where he sat reading the paper in one of the large, high-backed chairs. "Stop by the creatures shop. See if you can't find a nice female pooch." He stated with a small smile. "Snuffles is getting lonely."

Arabella leaned down as she walked past him and lightly kissed his head. "Poor Snuffles," She commented as she headed for the door, "I'm afraid he's just going to have to get used to it. One dog in the house is all I can take."

Harry watched as the smallest trace of a grin came over his godfather's features when Arabella kissed his head, which grew into a genuine smile as he watched her leave, staring contentedly after her.

"Can I asked you something, Sirius?" Harry asked, watching as Sirius turned back to his paper, the smile still on his face.

Sirius dropped the top half of the paper as he looked over it at his godson. "Depends on the question. And one's that start like that come with no guarantees. So be warned."

"Do you like Arabella?"

Sirius sat for a moment in stunned silence. "You certainly don't beat around the bush."

Harry shrugged. "Do you?"

"What do you think? Or could it be you haven't been paying any attention at all like I told you to?"

"Well, I know you sort of joke around with her. But I mean...do you really like her?"

Sirius folded up his paper with a sigh. Harry had something on his mind and he wasn't going to be put off with vague answers this time.

"All right, that sounds like you've got something buzzing around in your head. Out with it."

"You're avoiding the question." Harry observed casually.

"So are you. Which one of us do you think will win this stare-down?"

Harry paused for a moment, then shook his head and turned back to his paper. "It wasn't anything." He stated. "Just a question."

Sirius watched him for a few moments, then got up and sat next to him on the couch. "Now who's avoiding questions?" Sirius asked in a concerned tone. "Come on. Tell me what's on your mind."

Harry stared absently at his piece of parchment for a moment, then leaned back on the sofa. "You remember the night I woke up screaming?" He asked quietly.

Sirius didn't see how he could forget it. The sight of his godson sitting in the middle of his bed, screaming in terror. "Yes."

"You asked if I remembered the dream."

"You said you didn't."

Harry turned to the floor. "Well, that wasn't really the truth. I do remember them."

"Why did you say you didn't?"

"Because I didn't want to tell you about them. Or more accurately, I didn't want to tell Arabella about them."

"Why Arabella?"

Harry turned a worried stare to his godfather. "Because she's in them, Sirus. And I didn't want her knowing about what's in them."

"But...?"

Harry paused for a long time, staring at the table in front of him where his homework lay. "I really like Arabella." Harry answered at last. "And I don't want to see anything happen to her. And my dreams...ones like this one....sometimes...." Harry stopped for a moment. "...sometimes they come true." He finished in a low tone.

Sirius knew this to be all to true to try and refute it. Several things Harry had had dreams about had later been proved to have actually happened, though it wasn't clear if Harry dreamed the events before they happened, during, or after.

"And what makes you think something is going to happen to Arabella? Because of these dreams?"

Harry nodded silently.

"Perhaps you should tell me about these dreams, Harry." Sirius prompted. "If Arabella's in danger, or you think she might be, it's better if we have some forewarning."

Harry sat staring at the floor for a few moments. It was too late to turn back now, he knew. But the dream...or parts of it...were hard to remember.

"It seems pretty disjointed to me, Sirius. It starts out OK. I just see Arabella. When the dreams started, I didn't know who she was. But she was in the dream alone. But suddenly Voldemort appears. It's like he just comes out of nowhere. And he's threatening her...trying to get her to move out of his way. But she refuses. And then...he pulls out his wand, and he points it at her and...and ...he says the killing curse. But...that's where it gets foggy. Something happens, but I either can't see it or I can't remember it. All the time it's like I'm standing right there but I can't do anything. Just watch. And as soon as Voldemort speaks the curse, the whole scene gets fuzzy. Once I thought I saw someone grab her and pull her out of the way. But...that's when I usually wake up."

Sirius sat for a moment looking thoughtfully at his godson. "When did you start having this dream?"

"At the beginning of the summer. But I didn't know who the woman was then, so I thought it was just...someone else Voldemort had killed and there wasn't much I or anyone else could do about it. From the dream, the person died. So I didn't see any point in telling anyone about it."

"But now you know that the woman in your dream hasn't died yet."

Harry nodded.

Sirius sighed quietly. "Harry," he said, trying not to sound critical of his godson, "any dream you have about Voldemort is important. No matter how foolish it seems to you at first, you should always tell someone about them, all right? Promise me you'll do that from now on."

Harry nodded.

"All right then," Sirius said, getting off the couch. "'Bella shouldn't be too far down the road. I'm going to go find her. You stay here."

Harry nodded as his godfather took a small blue stone out of his pocket. Arabella had enchanted several such stones for Sirius to help him get about until his magic fully returned. Each was keyed to a specific location or person. The blue one had been keyed to Arabella and would instantly take him to wherever she was. Holding it tightly in his hand, he quickly disapparated.

Although Sirius was trying to remain calm in front of him, Harry could practically feel the tension rising in Sirius as he told him about the dream. Whatever the dream meant, Sirius saw it as a genuine threat to Arabella. And he wouldn't be at ease until she was back within the confides of the charm-protected house.

Apparating into town would certainly have been faster, but Arabella always insisted on walking. It wasn't more than a few miles, and the road was lined with stately old oaks and blooming brush plants along the side of the road. Arabella often commented on how much she loved the smell of the flowers as she strolled down the wide dirt road towards the town.

As she walked along, watching a small, brightly colored bird as it hopped among the branches of a nearby tree, a small popping noise behind her caught her attention. Carefully slipping her hand into her robes for her wand, Arabella continued to stroll along the road as though nothing had alarmed her. But the footsteps were coming up behind her too fast for her to ignore anymore. Turning about abruptly, Arabella pulled her wand and pointed it at the intruder.

Sirius skidded to a halt, Arabella's wand now just inches from his face.

"Sirius! What are you doing here? You should be at the house guarding Harry."

Sirius quickly took her arm and turned her around. "Harry isn't the one I'm worried about right now." He said.

Arabella immediately sensed his uneasiness. "Why? What's wrong?"

"You need to come back to the house, Arabella. Right now."

Arabella didn't argue. She took Sirius' hand and they both quickly disapparated back to the house.

Back at the house Arabella sat on the couch next to Harry, listening attentively as her godson told her about his dream.

"I'm really sorry I didn't mention it to you before," Harry finally finished. "But it just didn't seem that important at the time."

"Your dreams about Voldemort are always important, Harry." Arabella said gently, brushing a bit of hair off his face.

"That's what Sirius said."

"And Sirius was right." Harry's godfather added. "You need to tell us about any dream you have about Voldemort, Harry. It's the one inadvertent spy we seem to have on our side that he can't do anything about."

"But why me, Sirius?" Arabella asked. "Why would Voldemort be targeting me? He doesn't know who I am. What my connection to Harry is."

Sirius thought for a long moment, then slowly shook his head. "I have no definite answer for that, Arabella. Only that we know he's always targeted Aurors. Maybe it's simply that, and has nothing to do with Harry this time. You were a very popular Auror. You captured a lot of Voldemort's supporters and brought them to trail. I've been stupid not to worry that you might be a target to him."

"Then what about you?" She replied. "Why shouldn't he be just as fervently after you? You were a better Auror than me. You caught a lot of Deatheaters. More than I did. You caught many of his top supporters. Why isn't he after you as well?"

"Because he doesn't need to be," Sirius explained darkly. "Why bother going after someone when the whole wizarding world is trying to find them as well? Voldemort wouldn't waste his resources on me when someone else is likely to do his work for him and capture me."

Arabella sighed as she shook her head. "So now what? We're all prisoners in this house? Afraid to leave it?"

"For the time being I think it's safer if we stay as close to the house as possible. At least for today. Tomorrow we'll go see Dumbledore. I think he'll want to hear Harry's dream as well."

Harry spent the rest of his day quietly working on his homework. Arabella sat in one of the large chairs near the fireplace, going through an old spell book. Sirius spent the day going about the house, checking the spells that had been placed on the entrances to the house for any tampering.

By dinner Harry had begun to regret having said anything at all about the dream. He hadn't had it that often. And all telling Sirius and Arabella about it had accomplished was to turn their peaceful home into a prison with Sirius standing guard. Surely if his dream meant anything something would have happened by now. Maybe this time it was just a dream. No special meaning. No prophetic vision. Just a dream.

Harry watched as his godmother magically whipped up a small dinner. Nothing was more telling to Harry than this as to how distracted she was by the dream. Arabella loved to cook more than anything. She diligently shunned using any magic in preparing their meals, doing everything as muggle-like as possible.

Evening wasn't it's usual routine of TV watching either. Harry found himself sent off to bed earlier while Sirius ran another check of the entrances.

"Everything check out for the forty-fifth time?" Arabella asked as Sirius dropped on to the couch next to her.

"As that this is for your benefit as well now, one would think you would show a bit more gratitude."
"What? That you don't think I'm a grown girl and I can take care of myself?"

"Oh yes, Arabella. That dinner just reeked of your self-confidence."

"I was pressed for time. Sometimes you have to make allowances."

Sirius made a small noise that quickly turned into a cough under Arabella's heated stare.

"Well, if that's how you're going to view all this, than you're going to appreciate my next suggestion even more." Sirius stated.

Arabella raised an eyebrow. "Next suggestion?"

Sirius paused as a he took a deep breath. 'Best to get it all out in one, even sentence', he had told himself when he practiced the statement earlier. "'Bella, I don't think you should be alone at night."

There, that sounded all right.

Arabella's eyebrow stayed arched. "And your suggestion would be...?"

Sirius coughed again, this time to give himself a bit more thinking room. "I thought," he began in an even tone, "that perhaps it would be safer if I stayed with you."

The eyebrow still hadn't lowered. "Stay with me?"

"In your room."

Arabella gave a derisive laugh. "Is that the best you can do?" She asked past a slight snort of laugher. "Using Harry's dream to try and get into my room?"

Sirius looked shocked. "That's what you honestly think is behind this? My simply trying to connive my way into your bed?"

Arabella sat in silence, taken slightly aback.

"If that were my intention, 'Bella, I would be much more straight forward about it. But as it is, my only concern is yours and Harry's safety. And as things are, I can't divide my attention up much more than it is now."

Arabella stared back at him, remaining silent.

"'Bella," Sirius stated softly, taking her hand and placing the gentlest of kisses on it, 'a perfect gentleman', I swear it."

Arabella smiled slightly at him. "Sirius Black," she chided softly, "even when your not trying to talk your way into some poor unfortunate girl's bed, you're still the charmer."

Sirius pulled her against him and whispered lustfully in her ear. "I thought I had already charmed my way back into your bed at the castle." He reminded her.

"That was your bed." Arabella countered with a playful smile. "And there won't be any of that, so get that thought right out of your dirty little mind."

"First of all," Sirius replied, nuzzling against her ear, "I find nothing at all 'dirty' about that thought. And secondly, if its all the same to you, I would prefer to keep it where it is, preserved and greatly treasured."

Arabella felt the last words breathed over her skin like a whispered prayer and felt her resolve quickly melting. Their night in his bed at the castle had been paradise to her. And she treasured every moment of it as much as she had no doubt Sirius said he did.

A warm, pleasant rush of memories played through her mind as Sirius continued kissing and nuzzling her neck, begging to be allowed to be relived more fully. But Arabella forcefully shoved them back, working furiously to keep her mind about her. But as she came back to the moment, she realized the only new temptations she was fighting were of her own making. Sirius had gone no further in his actions than to continue kissing her neck and ear.

Arabella gently shoved him back. "All right, enough of that." She chided a good deal softer this time. "You promised to behave."

Sirius didn't relent as he leaned back over to her. "Not since I was three years old." He muttered against her skin.

"Well, that explains a lot." Arabella conceded. She let him go for a few more moments, thoroughly, though swearing never to admit it, enjoying his lips tracing patterns across her neck with small, butterfly soft kisses. But finally she shoved him back with a bit more force. "Sirius, you did promise." She stated.

Sirius pulled back with a soft sigh and a contented smile. He finally stood up and offered her his hand. "The perfect gentleman," he repeated.

Arabella took his hand and allowed him to pull her to her feet. But she suddenly found herself trapped in a tight embrace as Sirius pulled her against him.

"Unless you would rather have an ideal scoundrel." He added with a playful wink.

Arabella sighed as she extracted herself from his arms. "Just stay on your side of the bed." She stated as she headed for the stairs.

Sirius quickly fell into step behind her. "I like to sleep in the middle." He commented.

"Fine." Arabella replied. "Sleep in the middle of the right side then."